It Had to Start Somewhere
by futureoracleofcamphalfblood
Summary: How Sally Jackson met Poseidon and Percy's early years. For Percy to be as awesome as he is, he would have had to have some pretty great parents. My own way of showing where Percy gets all his best (and worst) traits from. Other parents of all the characters will be subtly (or not so subtly) snuck in there, please feel free to make requests. Coverart based off a work by BurdgeBug
1. Chapter 1- Sally

**So recently decided to start a bunch of new stories trying to figure out which one I'd like to continue, tell me what you think. **

Sally tapped the leather steering wheel, worn from where her fingers had rubbed it raw. The car was one of the few things that her uncle had left behind, that and a huge pile of hospital bills.

She felt the muscles in her back slowly unwind as she got farther away from the city, getting closer and closer to the beach. The late July sun beat down on her arm, draped lazily out the window and the wind whipped her hair around and ran over her skin like water.

After driving for what seemed like forever, Sally pulled into the driveway, gravel crunching under the wheels as she admired the quaint cabin with the lace curtains hanging in the windows.

"Sally," yelled a girl running out of the house, curls of red hair flying behind her.

Sally braced herself for the impact of the tiny girl's body slamming into her, a feeling she knew all too well.

"Umph," Sally squeaked. "Slow down Jenny, I can't breathe."

"Don't be such a baby," Jenny said, her cinnamon eyes teasing.

"Jenny," a girl hollered. "Let Sally go, you're smothering her!" The girl jogged over to them, pulling Jenny off of Sally.

"Thanks," Sally smiled, breathlessly.

"Kimmm," Jenny complained. "We haven't seen Sally in forever."

"We saw her a week ago," Kim said, rolling her giant blue eyes.

"Spoil sport," Jenny muttered.

"Come on," Kim said, lifted Sally's duffel over her shoulder and leading her to her room.

Sally flopped down on the bed, letting the smell of fabric softener and ocean wash over her. The room was tidy and quaint with two identical twin beds with hand sown quilts in each corner, paintings of the beach on the pale yellow walls, and a jar of sea-glass that someone had collected on the window sill. Sally loved it.

"So I've kinda been living here for the past month and all my stuff is all over the other room so Jenny said she was cool with sleeping in here," Kim said, awkwardly shifting her weight from leg to leg. "But I'm fine with sleeping in here if you want to sleep alone," she offered.

Sally laughed, "Are you kidding me? I'm fine in here."

Kim smiled, turning to leave, "Okay then, I'll leave you to unpack, I think Jenny said something about going to the beach soon."

Fifteen minutes later Sally had sorted all of her few items of clothing into the wooden dresser and was once again sprawled out on the soft sheets of her bed, closing her eyes and snuggling into the quilt. She needed this vacation, she had been working none stop the past year trying to scrape up enough money to pay off all of her uncle's hospital bills. With the little money left over, she had to pay for rent and food (mainly ramen noodles). Sally hadn't even been able to think about going to college.

"Sally," Jenny whispered singsongy in her ear a few minutes later. "Come on, lets go to the beach."

Sally opened one eye hesitatingly. Jenny was crouched eye-level to the bed and Kim was next to her smiling. Both were in swimsuits.

Rolling out of bed and onto her friends, effectively squishing them. Jumping up, she laughed at her friends who were groaning on the ground. She bounded over to the small dresser that she shared with Jenny, pulling on her bright blue one piece and slipping a white sundress over it.

* * *

When they got to the beach Sally immediately pulled off her coverup and bounded into the cool water, crashing through the waves.

Jenny and Kim soon followed after, determined to slather their fair skin with sunscreen, as Kim had the complexion of snow and Jenny's skin already had constellations of freckles all over it.

Kim immediately dove into the surf and came up grinning from ear to ear, bangs plastered to her forehead, watching Jenny slowly wade in.

"Yeah, thats so not happening," she laughed.

Sally giggled and ran after.

Jenny's brown eyes widened seeing the two girls hurtling towards her.

"NO! Guys!," she yelled before they crashed into her, all of them falling in a tangle of bodies into the water.

Jenny was the first to break the surface of the water, gasping for air. "I'm going to kill both of you," she growled, pulling them from the water.

They all flopped on the sand, letting the white foam of the tide rise and fall around them, each unaware of the man in the water watching them. Well one girl in particular.

**Who could it be? Just kidding its Poseidon, he's a creeper. Please review, I have some interesting ideas for this story and would love input.**


	2. Chapter 2- Cookies

**THIS IS THE REVISED VERSION, IF YOU ALREADY READ MY ORIGINAL CHAPTER TWO GO BACK TO CHAPTER TWO ON THIS AND READ THE AUTHOR'S NOTE. Dont forget to review, they help so much!**

A puff of flower went up in Sally's face as she poured in the chocolate chips into the mixing bowl.

She shot a glare in the direction of Jenny's snickering laugh. "Shut up."

Jenny pressed her lips together, clearly still trying not laugh, "Don't worry, I'm sure they'll still taste great." Jenny reached into the mix and swiped her finger through the batter.

"Stop! We're not going to have any to eat."

"See it tastes great," Jenny nodded knowingly while her fingers again trying to sneak their way into the batter.

Sally intercepted her, "No." She turned around and shoved a spoonful into her mouth.

"Oh. My. Gosh. You just did it," Jenny cried indignantly.

"_I_ can. I'm cooking them," Sally smirked.

She turned around and dragged another finger through the gooey batter with a grin.

* * *

_"Mommy, mommy try this," a little cried from her spot at the kitchen counter. She stood on an old chair, not quite tall enough to reach the top herself. Curls of brown hair were pulled of her face with a bright blue ribbon._

_"Let's see," her mother said, walking up and swiping a finger through it. "Hmmm…"_

_The girl's blue eyes widened, making the flecks of green nearly visible. She was leaning so far forward in anticipation, it seemed she was about to fall of the chair. "Yes…." The girl stared at her mom waiting for an answer, her brown hair which usually fell down her back in a satiny sheet was pulled on top of her head with a purple clip. _

_"Yum," the mother said. "But I have a secret for you," she said, leaning foward. Her breath felt warm as she whispered in Sally's ear and she smelt like vanilla, "See this?" She opened her hand, reveling a small package of cream cheese.  
_

_The girl nodded excitedly._

_"If you use this, I promise you, your cookies will always be perfect." _

_"Really?"_

_"Really really," the mom nodded, smearing cookie dough on her nose._

_The girl giggled and tried to lick off the batter with her tongue, her mom giggling in the background._

Sally smiled, remembering one of her only memories of her mother. Sally looked nothing like her mother besides their hair the same color as coffee. Sally's mom's hair was straight as a ruler and her almond shaped eyes were the prettiest shade of hazel, that much she knew from pictures.

She placed the cookies in the oven and sat in front of them watching them rise. She would always do this when she and her mom made cookies and her mom would always get mad at her about radiation and other things that four-year olds can't understand. Watching the cookies change from a gooey (but delicious mess) to the golden-brown morsels she loved was always worth a scolding, it was magic.

Kim sat down next her on the linoleum floor, "I can smell them already."

Jenny sat down on her other side, "Can we take them out yet?"

"Five minutes," Sally said, not taking her eyes off the bubbling cookies.

They sat in a comfortable silence, leaning against each other waiting for the five minutes to be up.

Sally remembered the first time she had met Kim and Jenny, she'd never been so scared scared in her life.

_Jenny nudged Kim, "Kimmy, who's that?" she asked, gesturing to the quiet girl in the corner with her brown hair in messy curls._

_"I dunno Jenny, I think she's new," Kim said, her wheat-colored braids swaying as she shook her head._

_"She looks sad. Lets go talk to her," Jenny insisted, grabbing Kim's hand and dragging her over to the girl. "Hey."_

_The girl's head shot up. "Hi," she stuttered out._

_"I'm Jenny and this is Kimmy. Are you new? Where are you from? What's your name?" Jenny babbled on._

_The girl nervously smoothed down the skirt of her dress, there was a stain near the hem. "I'm Sally, I just moved here from Nebraska."_

_"Where's that?" Jenny questioned, her brown eyes widening._

_"Its in the middle of the country, Jenny," Kim said, covering Jenny's mouth. "Now shhh."_

_Ignoring Jenny's muffled protests, Kim asked, "How old are you?"_

_"I just turned six," she softly replied, wringing her hands._

_Kim placed a hand on Sally's nervous hands, __"You should play with us at recess."_

_"Really?" Sally asked excitedly._

_"Yeah, we play queens," Jenny agreed, virgourously shaking her head, her copper ringlets bouncing on her shoulders. __"Not princesses," she emphasized. "Queens."_

_"Awesome," Sally said, giving a toothy grin._

* * *

_Ding_

The timer went off and Sally jumped up and pulled the cookies out of the oven. The chocolate chips were morsels of heaven and the cookies were barely holding together in time to get them into their mouths, they melted on impact.

"This might be my favorite batch of cookies you've ever made, Sally," Kim said with a contented sigh.

"I second that notion," Jenny said, her cheeks bulging with cookies, crumbs collecting in the corners of her mouth. "And clearly there were plenty chocolate chips to go around," she muttered.

* * *

Sally stared at Jenny's sleeping figure, her chest slowly rising and falling.

Careful to not wake her up, Sally slipped on a pair of flip-flops and threw on shorts and an old T-shirt. She peeked in on Kim, who was sprawled out across the bed, softly snoring. Sally grabbed a tuber ware full of left over cookies and ran all the way to the beach where the sky looked like a child's painting, with the brights of pinks and blues and fluffy white clouds drifting across the sky. She swear she saw a pair of green fins ripple across the surface of the water. Sally attributed it to lack of sleep and laid down in the soft sand, the surf just close enough to wet her toes.

"Cookies were overall the best beach snack by far," she mused aloud.

"I'd agree," said a deep voice next to her.

Sally jumped a few feet in the air and was just about ready to bolt, when the guy put his hands up in a surrendering position. "Oh gods, sorry! I didn't mean to startle you."

And for the first time Sally got a really good look at the stranger, he was the most beautiful man she'd ever seen. People say men can't be beautiful but this one was. His hair was perfectly windswept and he had a face that artists would sell their souls to sculpt. And his eyes, oh his eyes, they seemed as deep as the ocean itself and just as green.

**I like this chapter a lot better than my previous one. Please review and check out some of my other stories, for those of you in the states I'm writing a thanksgiving one-shot on my story Everyday I will Love You. **


	3. Chapter 3- When Sally met Poseidon

**As a reply to the guest that asked if Sally met Jenny and Kim after her parents died in the car crash, the answer is yes. Thanks to camilu57, PJO-HoH-super-fan, and crimsonDream01 for your reviews!**

_And his eyes, oh his eyes, they seemed as deep as the ocean itself and just as green._

Sally regained her senses and slowed her heartbeat to a normal rate. "God, I'm usually not this jumpy," she said with a hand over her heart.

"Well your reaction is pretty understandable," he said with a lop-sided smile. "Can I sit down?"

Sally patted the ground next to her, "Sure."

The man plopped himself down on the ground next to her, sending up a puff of white sand.

Desperate to start a conversation and develop a sense of normality to calm herself down, Sally offered the man the cookie tuberware, "Do you want a cookie?"

"Of course," he said, reaching into the container. He took a bite and fell backwards into the soft sand. "Oh. My. Gods. This is the best cookie I've ever had," he moaned. "And I've had a lot of cookies."

"Really?" she laughed, with a swift raise of her eyebrow.

"Yeah I mean, I've had macaroons, oatmeal raisin (but those are gross), ginger bread cookies, chocolate chip cookies, fortune cookies, Oreos, snickerdoodles..."

"I got it."

"Anyways," he continued with a wave of his hand. "These are my absolute favorite."

Sally laid down on the sand next to him, "Well thanks."

"There's nothing like eating cookies on the beach."

"Exactly," Sally smiled.

"Something about eating these tiny morsels of deliciousness makes the whole world seem nicer."

She laughed, appreciating the stranger's optimistic outlook on life. "But you know what this needs?"

He shot her a glance, a smile playing on his lips, "What?"

"A good book."

What started out as a small snicker turned into a booming laugh, "I should've guessed".

"What do you mean 'you should've guessed'?" Sally asked incredulously.

"I dunno, you just strike me as a book person," he shrugged.

"Is that a bad thing?" Sally said, her voice nearing an offended tone.

He seemed to notice this and quickly began to backpedal. "I mean people who usually zone out like you were earlier are bookworms and I don't know you seem nice and nice people are usually book people and..."

"You can stop now," Sally said, holding up a hand to silence the babbling idiot that was the god of the sea. "You're good."

"Sorry," he smiled bashfully. "I'm not really a book person myself."

"How are you not a book person?" Sally asked. "That's like... not liking language or I don't know something else that provides an unlimited excess to information or takes you to an entirely different world." **(an: I spun this off of the book Fangirl, if you haven't read it already, its by Rainbow Rowell and you should go read it right now)**

He chuckled, "I don't know, I guess I just like experiencing it all first hand."

Sally felt determined to convince this stranger of the magic of books, "I'm going to find you a book, something you can't do yourself."

"Doubt it."

"I accept this challenge."

"So does this mean we'll get to meet again?" he asked, she could practically hear him smirking.

Sally felt a blush blossom across her cheeks and was glad he couldn't see her. She silently cursed, "I don't know...maybe."

The guy flipped to face her, his head resting on his hand. "So I've almost given you a heart attack, named your chocolate chip cookies my favorite cookie of all time, slightly offended you already, and you've promised me another encounter with the guarantee to find me a book that I'll like and I still don't know your name."

"Its Sally," she said laughing, propping herself up on her elbow to match his position.

He made a big show of thoughtfully rubbing his chin and studying her, "It fits."

Sally rolled her eyes and laughed, "So are you going to tell me your name?"

"Poseidon."

Sally mimicked him and squinted her eyes and turned her head to the side, "I can see it." And she did. His face, while gorgeous, seemed ancient, like something carved thousands of years ago. He belonged in one of the ancient stories that Sally loved so much, just like his name. But whereas he seemed flawless at first glance the longer they talked the more she noticed, like how his face was sprinkled with freckles and he had deep lines at the corners of his eyes and mouth from smiling. And this just made him all the more attractive.

Poseidon smirked and started chuckling, "Well I'm glad it has your approval."

She flopped over onto her back and stared up at the sky, where the sun was climbing higher in the sky, bathing everything in an amber light. "God, thats beautiful." Sally thought she heard Poseidon mutter something like "I liked Helios better" next to her, but she couldn't be sure. Lazy clouds drifted across the sky and the breeze stirred something in the air that smelt like seawater and cotton. They laid there in a comfortable silence until Sally glanced at her watch and realized how late it had gotten.

"Crap, crap, I have to go."

Poseidon sat up, sand pouring out of his dark hair as he ran his callused hands through it. "Well, damn."

Sally nodded apologetically, "I don't want my friends to freak out. They've taken it upon themselves to act as my parents."

"Well it was nice to meet you Sally...," he paused, waiting for a last name.

"Jackson."

"It was very nice to meet you Sally Jackson, chocolate chip cookie extraordinaire and bookworm," he said, shaking her hand.

Sally ran of with a wave, trying to ignore the sense that all the nerves on the hand he just shook were on fire.

* * *

Sally slipped through the backdoor, careful to make sure it didn't slam like it did every time Jenny flung it open. She busied herself at the kitchen counter, making coffee and chopping up fruit for breakfast.

She had already settled herself in the window seat with her worn out copy of the _Count of Monte Cristo _when Jenny stumbled in, Kim close behind her. Jenny's curls were smashed on one side of her head from sleeping and Kim's hair was piled on top of her head in a bun.

"Morning," Kim yawned.

Jenny grunted a incomprehensible greeting.

"There's blueberry muffins warming in the oven," Sally said, flipping her book page.

"Awesome," Kim said, drifting into the kitchen.

"Grab me one," Jenny shouted, plopping herself down onto the couch and turning on the TV. She flipped through the channels until she found one playing a movie, one of the ones with the really hot guy who falls in love with the classically gorgeous girl, you know, that one. That was the thing Sally liked about books, she never had to worry about reading the same plot over and over, each author was too different.

"That McLean is one hot piece of man," she heard Jenny say.

Sally glanced up and admired the man on the screen, his chiseled jaw and warm eyes justified Jenny's comment, but Sally couldn't help but think that Poseidon, with his freckles and lines from smiling and sea-green eyes, looked so much better.

**Any reviews are appreciated and they help to make sure the story gets better. I hope you like the encounter with Piper's dad. **


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